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Michigan State geographer Kirk Goldsberry has mapped out the locations on the court from which NBA players score the most efficiently. His research, which tracked every shot taken between 2006 and 2011, shows scoring hot spots. Meanwhile, some basketball teams are collecting location data using camera systems that track where players are on the court. "If you're good at spatial analytics, I want to talk to you," said Mike Zarren of the Boston Celtics.

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RadioShack filed a plan in bankruptcy court to create a liquidation trust that would allow unsecured creditors to recoup some of what they're owed. Some creditors want to convert the Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization into a Chapter 7, to cut expenses and liquidate any remaining assets more quickly and efficiently.

Michigan State University geography professor Kirk Goldsberry has created court maps that show the shooting tendencies of the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder, which are playing in the NBA Finals. The color-coded maps demonstrate how effective the players are from each spot on the floor. The Heat make fewer three-point shots, while the Thunder take an above-average percentage of their shots from long range, Goldsberry notes. "Basketball is entering its own 'Moneyball' era," he said. "We're applying scientific visualization techniques to sports data sets."

Wages aren't the only consideration in determining where U.S. companies locate factories in China, according to research from three University of Cincinnati geography professors. Surveys reveal that companies are influenced by factors such as infrastructure and communications.

Federal entities such as the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency continue to work through the kinks to build the National Geospatial Platform. The service will ultimately share geospatial data, but in the meantime, agencies are building their own prototypes. The EPA is building a shared-services infrastructure for its data and will use it to increase access to its location data products. The USDA is working on cloud-based spatial data that will prevent it from duplicating effort. "I hope that over time ... data and services will migrate to a federalwide capability," said Jerry Johnston, the EPA's geospatial information officer.

In a battle of rival sports playoff games in Detroit, the NHL bested the NBA on Wednesday, when NBC's airing of the Pittsburgh Penguins' win over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals scored a 14% higher rating than ESPN's showing of Game 5 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals between the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics.